Are You Motivated More By Prices Or Air Safety?

By Quentin Fottrell

The Federal Aviation Administration’s announcement on Sunday that it will make changes to the schedules of the nation’s 15,000 air traffic controllers has brought serious issues to light about airline safety, but also raised questions among consumer advocates about whether passengers care more about ticket prices or issues such as these.

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Air travel consumer advocate and syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott says he gets more queries about prices than safety. “We know that taking off and landing are the most dangerous parts of the flight, but people don’t complain about the airline experience unless there’s a change in ticket prices or they’ve been wedged into their seat,” he says.

The story so far: an air traffic controller was found sleeping at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last month. The FAA suspended a controller at Boeing Field/King County International Airport for falling asleep last week after that same controller fell asleep on duty in January. A controller at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee also fell asleep. Last Saturday, yet another controller in Miami was suspended after sleeping on duty.

But Elliott says these sleep scandals haven’t raised alarm bells with consumers. “There were no close calls as far as we know,” he says. “This is probably much more of a media-generated crisis. I base that on feedback from my own readers. Nobody has said, ‘You’ve got to do something about these sleeping air traffic controllers.’”

However, Dr. Todd Curtis, airline safety analyst and founder of Airsafe.com, believes the FAA’s changes would have been less likely to happen had it not been a front page story for days on end and says the fact that the first widely reported bedtime story took place in Washington also helped. “The good thing about this is that no-one had to get hurt before there were significant changes in operations,” he says.

Hank Krakowski, who was in charge of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, resigned last Thursday after another incident in recent weeks at a U.S. airport in which an air traffic controller was found sleeping on the job. Last week, the FAA finally announced that it will add extra staff to 27 control towers around the country and, on Sunday, published stricter rules regarding controller shift work.

The FAA’s new rules only allow a minimum of nine hours off between controllers’ “swing” shifts at different times of the day rather than eight and cannot swap day/night shifts unless that minimum is met. However, they must still work up to 60 hours a week.

On Monday, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Paul Rinaldi kick-started their “Call to Action” in Atlanta on air traffic control safety and, according to the FAA, “to reinforce the need for all air traffic personnel to adhere to the highest professional standards.”

The FAA’s new rules give more time between shifts but potentially less time between work cycles. Is that enough? Doug Church, spokesman for NATCA, who is attending the event in Atlanta, told Pay Dirt, “We support what the FAA is doing and are working in partnership with them on the fatigue issue.” (The FAA was unavailable for comment.)

In the meantime, Todd Curtis recommends this website: LiveAtc.net, allowing airline passengers to listen to air traffic controllers. You can type in an airport, sit back and (perhaps) relax. It offers a glimpse into a world that was previously unseen and unheard, until the recent media coverage of sleeping controllers.

I retired asmolt seven years ago (has it been that long?) And I spent my entire career at one ARTCC and in one Area and on one crew. I was a member of NATCA and, now, a retired member of NATCA. In my twenty years as an ATCS, I saw many changes in equipment, procedures and scheduling among others. I do admit that I don’t know exactly everything that is going on today. You praise Sec. LaHood for ordering the FAA to increase staffing at 26 facilities, and yes, that is good. But you are giving him a pass by not calling him out on refusing to let controllers power nap on breaks and ordering only nine hours between shifts. Studies have shown that power naps can be beneficial and a couple countries allow their controllers to do that. His order increasing the required time off between shifts to nine hours vs. eight is a public relations move and pure bs. In my opinion, the bare minimum would be ten hours and twelve better. This gives the controller time to drive home, decompress, and get a good sleep in order to return to work well rested. When I started in 1983, we worked each shift for a week as follows, 3-11; 2-10; 7-3; 6-2 followed by a week of mids. The week of mids was usually four days because we rotated our days off at that time. No, it was not the most ideal for family life. My kids complained about the afternoon/evening shifts during the school year because they didn’t see me often. I made the effort to get up with them in the morning to help them get ready for school and sit down to breakfast with them. I don’t remember when we went to the 2-2-1’s and individual schedules vs. the crew/team concept of scheduling. It had its pluses and minuses. The biggest minus being the fatigue factor. When we went to the above scheduling, I had enough seniority to grab a schedule without mids. But that first day shift was a bitch. When I was assigned a mid due to a controller’s leave, I was, usually, able to trade it away.Shortly after going to the 2-2-1’s, I read a fatigue study that said that this schedule is the worst for fatigue. The ideal is just the opposite: a mid followed by two days followed by two afternoon/evening shifts. Of course, controllers, myself included, didn’t like that idea. Hey, we’re air traffic controllers; we’re tough; we can handle it. As for the controller at ZOB watching a movie…I don’t fault him for watching a movie. I do fault him for being sloppy and leaving his mic keyed. Come on people. Controllers are under the microscope. You need to be extra vigilant. NATCA needs to take the lead on this. All controllers need to realize that this is a 24/7 job and there is no perfect schedule. Sorry for the rant. Being retired, I realize that my opinion is not even worth 2 cents. I was not a perfect controller and had my share of OE’s. But, I look back on my career with pride. It WAS the best job I ever had.A side note: Just heard on CNN the FAM trips are back. It’s about time.

9:35 am April 21, 2011

PrivatePilot_and_Economist wrote:

OldFlyBoy is correct. Also, the problem with most “polls” on safety is they don’t put a price on it. If you ask would you pay $100/flight to increase safety from .01/MillionMiles to .009/MillioMiles, most people would laugh and say “of course not”, or they will laugh and say “I don’t even understand the measures”. Unscientific polls tend just to muddy the water.

12:13 am April 20, 2011

oldflyboy wrote:

One thing folks need to know is, when things are so slow at night around “Controlled” airports (i.e., those with manned Control Towers,) or in Controlled Airspace, that controllers fall asleep, as long as the visibility is good, pilots can do just fine on our own, and no “ground control” is really needed — certainly required by rule, but not at all needed (again, when things are slow, and “vis” isn’t any problem. Regardless of “Controlled” airspace and runways, and regardless of flying under Instrument Flying Rules (“IFR”), when wx and vis are good, in fact and by overriding FAA rule, “See and be seen” is the primary safety guidance for ALL pilots in ALL acft.

About Pay Dirt

Pay Dirt examines the millions of consumer decisions Americans make every day: What to buy, how much to pay, whether to rave or complain. Lead written by Quentin Fottrell, the blog examines these interactions, providing readers with news, insight and tips on shopping, spending, customer service, and companies that do right – and wrong – by their customers. Send items, questions and comments to quentin.fottrell@dowjones.com or tweet @SMPayDirt.